Merry F***ing Gristlemas

December 18, 2009 4:51 PM

This Gristlemas, why not give a Gristleism, the gift that keeps gristling.

The Gristleism, a variation on the Buddha Machine is Throbbing Gristle's unusual new box set, and is sure to SMASH the ice at parties.

Sat around the fire on Christmas day, a bloated drunken uncle emitting noxious turkey farts and telling racist jokes? Why, you need something with which to retaliate - and what better weapon could there be than a Gristleism, the new box of tricks from the Quietus' favourite pioneers of industrial music.

Not to be confused with the Gristleizer.

posted by philip-random (14 comments total)

two wrongs do not make a right.
posted by nickjadlowe at 5:04 PM on December 18, 2009

It's official - I'm amused.

A great prank would involve getting twenty of these and hiding them in various places.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:13 PM on December 18, 2009

So it's come down to this? That in order to prevent piracy they're proposing that stand-alone players be created for every new release? And the album they are talking about, in this case, is lo-fi incomplete tracks of previously available content? That doesn't sound like a win for anyone.

I wonder how long until someone just reads the embedded sound files and posts them for download anyway, just because.
posted by hippybear at 6:13 PM on December 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

How did the idea to create a Gristleism version of the box come about?

Chris Carter, from the Quietus link:
It's a long story but... while Throbbing Gristle were touring in April a number of seemingly unrelated things occurred. At the beginning of the tour we began selling our brand new album The Third Mind Movements. Initially sales of it were very good but by the second show we were selling hardly any copies of it at all. We soon found out it had been copied and posted on a whole bunch of torrent sites, we even had people bringing CDR copies to shows for us to sign, the barefaced cheek of it! Yeah, I know TG have a long history of being bootlegged and copied but this was bloody ridiculous. So by the time we got to Los Angles we'd started formulating this notion that our next release would HAVE to be something that couldn't be so easily copied, or had some other intrinsic value as an 'object'.

This is the kind of thing that puts me, as a musician, off a lot of capital-a Art, and Artists. The desire to increase your billfold really ought not, in my humble opinion, be so overriding as to determine your output to this extent.

I love TG, but they can certainly make their fans feel like cash tills at times.
posted by stinkycheese at 6:13 PM on December 18, 2009 [2 favorites]

So it's come down to this? That in order to prevent piracy they're proposing that stand-alone players be created for every new release? And the album they are talking about, in this case, is lo-fi incomplete tracks of previously available content? That doesn't sound like a win for anyone.

It's a win in the sense that it's a fun little noisy tchotchke that now exists and can be had for an affordable price. I think that it's an extremely creative way for them to continue doing work as Throbbing Gristle, just in a way that's different than making an album.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:31 PM on December 18, 2009

It's a win in the sense that it's a fun little noisy tchotchke that now exists ... and has the potential to infiltrate, infect, subvert any number of otherwise normal sonic situations. Keep on gristling in the free world.
posted by philip-random at 6:39 PM on December 18, 2009

It's a win in the sense that it's a fun little noisy tchotchke that now exists and can be had for an affordable price.

I guess I just don't see $30 as being all that affordable for such an object. Call me back when it's a dedicated mp3 player with high quality, full-length tracks and built-in sound output being offered for that price. I'd still feel like it's a waste of materials to manufacture and sell a complete new player each time, but if that's what they think they have to do in order to stay viable as a marketed musical entity, then so be it. Until then, this seems to me like a cute-ish idea poorly executed.
posted by hippybear at 6:41 PM on December 18, 2009

I guess I just don't see $30 as being all that affordable for such an object. Call me back when it's a dedicated mp3 player with high quality, full-length tracks and built-in sound output being offered for that price.

You are SO not the target market.
posted by libcrypt at 8:07 PM on December 18, 2009 [3 favorites]

I liked Genesis P-Oridge better when he wasn't a middle aged lady in saggy frumpy dresses and knit shawls. I don't know, I'm just weird like that. Nothing kills the joy of a burst of electronic high frequency hiss and static like a knit-shawl.
posted by Skygazer at 12:46 AM on December 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

God DAMN how did I not know they were touring again? AAAH ::headpops::. I caught Psychic TV playing in DC a couple years back, and the audience was something like 50 people. I think nearly half of them were S.O.s of other attendees, saying "Who is this again, honey?". Show was spectacular, nonetheless.
posted by FatherDagon at 8:43 AM on December 19, 2009

Judging by the name alone I was expecting some sort of horrible meat byproduct.
posted by pyrex at 10:46 AM on December 19, 2009

I was expecting some sort of horrible meat byproduct

I believe that the good people behind Throbbing Gristle would be quite happy with that sort of expectation.
posted by philip-random at 11:32 AM on December 19, 2009

I was hoping for some Pork Dukes. Oh well.
posted by Splunge at 12:32 PM on December 19, 2009

I am SO the target market for this.
posted by Hastur at 4:46 PM on December 19, 2009